


Emblems In Red

by Rikketss



Series: If Only You Cared [1]
Category: DCU, Justice League - All Media Types, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Kissing, Batman is kind of a dick, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Boys Kissing, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Child Neglect, Dick Grayson is Robin, F/M, M/M, Major Character Injury, Making Out, Mature because I’m really bad at writing, Slade is an okay person, spoilers obviously here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:54:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27631028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikketss/pseuds/Rikketss
Summary: The bird in red and green is at a standpoint where he just doesn’t know anymore. After bad habits and a record starting to form under his name he doesn’t know where to go anymore. Though it seems  that some people, more like one person sees the trend and starts encouraging the bad behavior.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne & Clark Kent, Dick Grayson/Red X, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Oliver Queen & Slade Wilson, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak, Red X/Robin, Robin/Others
Series: If Only You Cared [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020265
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not going to lie I struggled writing this because my writing isn’t the best. But I had a really good idea in my head followed by cool character designs. So I tried.

Prologue…

A suit in colors of red and green is pulled from the closet and thrown onto the messy floor of Robin's bedroom. It was no longer a favorite of Robins, it reminded him of christmas. Despite being the son of Bruce Wayne the holiday made him gag. He didn’t always have a reason he just hated it, maybe it was for the lack of fatherly love. The reasons never stuck long before they were followed by something else.

Maybe his hatred for holidays made him the rebellious teen he was now. Nothing made Robin happier than a theft gone right. Like anything it started out as a small habit that slowly grew larger to the point where he’s wound up in the same place as Red X a couple of times. Bruce was always furious when he bailed him out. There was that same talk and supposed disciplinary training, but that never stuck. Not that Robin wanted it to. The thrill of running from people he was supposedly sided with was fun. He wanted to be the fun one that was too careless to help others.

Though as of recently despite not winding up in the police officers office waiting for Bruce to bail him out like he always said he wouldn't. Bruce caught on that Robin's habit of theft was getting seriously out of hand. Robin didn’t like to think it was spiraling out of his control, he was finally getting good at taking things that were well protected. He didn’t do that often because he wasn’t stupid enough to have the idea of wanting to being noticed. Even with the thrill of cops on his tail. Running from supposed “good” guys was something that really got his adrenaline going. 

“If you keep doing this,” Bruce groaned as he massaged his temples for a moment, “I’m going to put you in juvie myself.” The same argument was going despite Bruce just waltzing into Dicks room, obviously drained from several dinner parties.

“Do what?” Robin questioned as he raised a brow waiting for the response of an angry bat. Next to theft was getting on the bats nerves was his next favorite thing to do. It made him feel noticed if anything and he liked that, bat putting in the effort to be a good parent.

“Stealing and don’t say for a damn second you didn’t steal anything.” Before the bird could say anything the gold necklace he stole a couple weeks back was dangling in his face only for a moment before it was tucked back into a pocket of sorts. It made his mouth water like one of Alfreds meals. “Can you please tell me why you feel it’s necessary to steal of all things? We aren’t in a financial situation where that should even be a thought.” 

“Dunno, seems cool I guess.” Dick smirked looking at a fuming Bruce Wayne. The twitch of Bruce's eye alerted the teen to stay on his toes. He looked ready to commit his first murder. Most times when Dick purposely got on his nerves he always seemed to have a similar look that just got angrier over time.

There was the moment of silence, Bruce had to be attempting to think of a better , more responsible answer. But seeing as the teen couldn’t wrap his head around what his adoptive father was thinking it was lost to him. He felt good about that for some reason. The reasoning could be anything and that meant Bruce didn’t understand him anymore. Understand him in the sense of being a detective which meant Bruce was failing at parenting or at something. 

“The fact--” Dick didn’t care what he said next. It was the same nonsense and it made him angry even if he wasn’t sure why.

There was no way Bruce was still on a one track mind about any of this. He was a detective and Batman, he was able to figure out so many things yet he couldn’t figure out Dick. The teen wasn’t sure if he wanted to be figured out or not, not that he even knew what was going on in his head.

“Are you even listening!?” Bruce snapped angry as his face was only an inch away from Dick’s. The stench of Bruce’s breath was one that stunk. 

“He must’ve just had dinner not that long ago.” Dick thought for a moment before thinking of other things.

“Nope!” The teen messy hair and everything ducked around the bats himself and snagged his bag he packed because he knew that Bruce was going to need a cool down at some point. Despite the obnoxious behavior he was exhibiting he was still smart enough to know when he should high tail out of a situation.

Despite the tailored suit that probably cost thousands Bruce looked like he might just get some Grayson blood on it. The thought made the Robin question if really wanted all the attention. He had gone over the limit with pushing Bruce this time like several other times. He had never seen the man get so angry at him before. Not that Bats would even acknowledge his existence most of the time. He was too busy bromancing with his brother's killer constantly. It wasn’t even the biggest red flag that Dick had seen before.

“Give me the bag.” It was a snarl that he never knew Bruce had. Dick was honestly sick of Bruce only noticing him when he did something wrong. But he was being noticed. Bruce “never” had the time to notice anything that made his name shine only the bad. He supposedly was too busy to parent his own kid. 

“Nope! Not today Bruce!” His vocals jumped from low to high as Bruce lunged at him angry as ever. The teen quickly dodged out of the way and made his way to the window on the other side of the room. It was obvious the billionaire had no training with a messy room and wound up slipping on some clothes. The clothes happen to be on hardwood flooring. “Gettin’ slow in your old age aren’t y’a.” 

Quickly unlatching the window Dick slides out with ease merely scraping the skin on his fingers raw as he slows his descent towards the ground.


	2. Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO — — — — >

The rain hadn’t stopped for anything in the past day and a half. So Dick found himself recleaning weaponry or coming up with new ideas for various things. He had a place outside of the Wayne manor in which he shared with the notorious Red X. Honestly for Dick he didn’t expect for a really close friendship between them. They were polar opposites for quite a while until Dick didn’t want to be the good kid. Or whatever Bruce thought of him before his descent into crime.

Sitting on the opposite ends on a ugly, old sofa that was still comfortable the two recent partners in crime watched tv together. The only shows that were on didn’t excite either of them so they decided without a word to watch the Gotham news. Now it was interesting when someone like Joker was recently self released from Arkham. The guy wasn’t boring like Deathstroke or Bats.

Though at the moment there was the reappearance of Scarecrow and his dreadful fear gas or whatever it was called. Dick didn’t like the guy or respect him in the slightest. If it wasn’t for Bruces no-kill rule there would definitely be some attempts made to kill the guy. The teen was smart enough to know that he couldn't just chase Scarecrow down and kill him. It needed planning and a whole lot of other boring things. 

“Sooo….What are you planning on doing tonight?” Red questions as he sprawls out on the couch pushing Dick into the armrest slightly.

“Nothin’ I guess, there’s not really anything to do unless you want to get soaked in the rain.” Dick replied in a bored tone as he looked over at Red. The other teen was in need of a haircut as hair was flopped over on his face, “Well I mean I could give you a haircut, did mine when I was five.” The boy wonder joked.

“I preferably would like my hair to not be butchered like a meat at a deli stand.”

“Sure.” It quickly fell back into silence with the only background noise being the crummy tv.

“The disappearance of the Batman's sidekick Robin has left people wondering. Has the Scarecrow taken the bird hostage or is there something more sinister to be uncovered?” A female news reporter reads off a script seeming enthusiastic as ever. 

Muting the tv Red questions the boy wonder lazily,but attempt was made, “Haven’t you been gone for like weeks or something prior to scarecrow breaking out of Arkham?”

“Yeah, but no one seems to care about that. Let the people hear what they want to hear.” Dick groans as he tosses a beat up 1911 on the table.

“Sounds like someones mad.” Red jokes, nudging Dick thigh with his foot as he unmutes the tv just in time to see scarecrow having some commentary by a new reporter in a helicopter. In the middle of Gotham's streets Scarecrow stood with a bunch of most likely unwilling people under the control of the masked criminal. 

“Looks like the rain doesn’t stop them,” Red remarks as he sits up more interested in the fiasco happening on tv.

The rain was still pounding against the rickety fire escape and window beside the two teens. The weather if anything had gotten worse and it seemed some of Gotham's criminals didn’t understand that meant less people on the street. So there was most likely going to be less hostages in the situation or none at all.

\----------- ----------

Today wasn’t Bruce's day he was only able to drive Scarecrow and his crew into hiding. None of them were going to be seen in prison today or at the moment anyways. The best thing about that was the Bats himself made himself look like a fuel on Gotham's News. Something a lot of people in Gotham watched because for whatever reason it was the most reliable. 

Despite the rain thudding outside in what seems to be a never ending manner the two criminals hear the sharp ringing of a phone on the kitchen counter. The counter was a complete mess with stacks of paper and dirty plates with food still on them. Kitchenware looked too fashionable to be in the state it was in.

Dick seeing as red was passed out on the couch got up sore from god knows what. Making his way across the trashed living area which was connected to the tiny kitchen. Looking at the phone he sees the number of Artemis. It was surely a surprise and Dick answered the phone with caution.

“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN??!!!” Yelled a very angry Artemis who had the right to be angry on the other side of the line. Dick kind of just got up and left and there was no way Bruce was going to tell anyone, but the reaction was uncalled for. He could’ve been held captive on some island or something not that anyone cared.

“Uhh,” Dick looked at Red who was still on the couch with weapons and numerous things scattered around him, “it’s complicated.”

“What do you mean complicated?” The blonde haired teen was still angry, but wasn’t yelling at the top of her lungs anymore.

“Uhm, I’ve been doing things I shouldn’t have been and decided that I no longer want to be Robin.” Kind of vague, but surely it would be enough for the archer to understand. 

“What did you do?” Snarled Artemis, she was usually the hot headed one within the group, but like anyone else at the moment who didn’t know him as Dick or Bats as Bruce they had a full right to be angry or worried.

“Nothing you would understand without knowing my identity. Also I don’t feel like telling you anything, I’m kind of content on where I am.” He hung up from the dry situation and put the phone on silent.

“What was that all about?” Red asked, boredly getting up from the couch and walking over towards Dick obviously woken up by the yelling on the other side of the line. The ex-robin was looking at some of the text messages he had received in the past week and a half.

It’s been almost four weeks. And people only started to text him with questions to his whereabouts 10 days ago. The young justice should’ve been looking for him or something, but they didn’t but that did answer Dicks question about his importance to say the very least. 

“You know the young justice team or whatever I was on right?” Dick said finally after the moment of silence.

“Yeah.”

“Well one of them called me to see where I was so I’m just going to throw the phone out.”

“Smash it and throw it into the dumpster outside.” Red X groans tiredly leaning into Dick for support. 

“Uh-huh,” Dick decides to change subject, “anyways if you sleep any longer it’ll be counted as a coma.”

“Well I deserve sleep, I didn’t get thrown out a window for the hell of it you know.” The thief grumbles as he walks towards the bathroom obviously done with talking. 

“Yeah but it was hilarious. You were taken out by a 70 year old man.”

“Shut up Grayson.” The thief yells from the bathroom.

“Uh-huh.” The ex-boy wonder manages to say as he snapped his beloved phone in half with the help of his knee.


	3. Theft isn’t always fun

Two thieves dressed in black stand on top of an elegant Gotham highrise. The rain had died down, but left gusts of heavy wind in its wake. It wasn’t too much for the duo to handle so they scaled the large building. The reasoning for all that was about to happen had a long explanation in hand.

A black market dealer had promised one of his most loyal customers the plans to something very interesting. The only catch was the dealer didn’t have it so he hired two notorious thieves to get it for him in a 24 hour span of time. So things were interesting to say the least. That was the short version of all of it.

“So you want to see who can find it first?” Dick questions a smirk visible on his face as he pretends to wipe dirt off of his shoulders. The jacket he wore had studded shoulders, with a nice leather look and hood to cover his face. The mask was similar to Red X’s as it was a skull mask just without the “X” on it which could be found on the back of his jacket.

Red walked over towards the edge of the building looking down for a second at most, “Oh your on.”

They both ran separate directions off the building already spotting possible entry ways for themselves. It didn’t take long for Dick to get inside, the apartment for the most part seemed empty. Seeing as these were some of Gotham's finest people they could be anywhere most likely wherever Bruce finds himself tonight. Any security cameras weren’t an issue due to hidden identity also because Red X fried the systems prior to entry.

Searching around the massive buildings Dick found the office which should have what he’s looking for. Except he had to do a double take as a fresh bloody handprint was on the door that was also ajar. With due caution Dick carefully pushed the door open with his foot to avoid touching the dripping blood.

The door made a small thud sound and stopped moving leaving the door halfway open which wouldn't be awful if the reasoning wasn’t gruesome. Dick being the ever so curious teen he was shimmied his way into the room and in a pool of dark red blood surrounded a lifeless body. The blood hadn’t seeped into the carpeted floor of the office yet. Way to fresh for his or anyones liking along with how quiet this murder was.

“What the fuck,” Red muttered from behind Dick and sidestepped to the other thiefs side.

The man in question laid on his side in a white tailored suit with black accents that was now the color of red raspberries, his face black and blue in many places as well. Walking around to get a better look Dick notices the familiar hilt of a knife sticking out of the man's back. 

“He has a rather large knife protruding out of his back which seems to be the cause of death.” Dick mutters as crouches down to better inspect the knife.

“Well whoever wanted him dead so bad has the harddrive with them.” Red mutters tapping a keyboard which causes the large monitor that he had his eyes on to light up. 

The computer looked untouched besides a splatter of blood that covered the corner of the scene.

“There's a shit ton of blood that doesn’t seem like it belongs to--” Red paused for a moment looking at something on the computer, “Daniel O'Riley who isn’t part of--”

A loud clatter of something knocking over alerts the two thieves to leave, thankfully the office has a door that leads into what seems to be a master bedroom that has another horrific sight. Laying on the beds were two bodies bounded by ropes. The white sheets were stained with far too much blood and despite Bruce's training the blood made him gag. The smell was awful as well.

“Where are their heads?” Red nudged the boy wonder who went closer to the bed to inspect, but quickly backed away.

“Lets go, now.” Dick murmured as he grabbed Red by the arm. The sight they both were witnessing wasn’t pleasant at all.

“I’ll take it their missing more than their he— too soon?” 

“Yeah way too soon,” Dick muttered, obviously not prepared for the wake up call of sorts, “this has to be a setup of some sorts, it's a bloodbath.”

The partners in crime snag some photos just in case and come to the conclusion they aren’t getting paid tonight. 

The money they would have received tonight would have just been extra cash to spend on anything pleased. Though they had to call the dealer at some point to let them know. 

“Well it could be worse,” Ex-prodigy kid Dick Grayson mentioned in a bland tone obviously too tired to deal with anything he just witnessed let alone comprehend.

“See that's the spirit, but seriously we need to leave and get an alibi somewhere.” 

The two teens now traumatized from such a scene high tail out of the Gotham high rise. Though the weather outside made them want to go back in even with such a horrid scene that laid before them. Though none the less the two teens who should not be living alone head home.

It was late November so it wasn’t surprising in the slightest that the frigid weather had already arrived. The intensity of it arriving was surprising though. Hail pattered against the ground. It was loud as a really bad thunderstorm, but hurt more than rain. By a lot.

“SO DO YOU WANT TO SOLVE WHATEVER HAPPENED IN THERE OR JUST LIKE NO?!?!” Red yelled over the loud noisy hail not caring about anyone who overheard.

“LETS TALK ABOUT IT WHEN WE GET-- UH HOME!!” Dick still wasn’t sure that an apartment with Red was considered home, but still referred to as such because he could.

‘SURE!!”

The two hurried their way to the rundown apartment where Red had been living in for gods know how long.

\----------

Slamming the door carelessly behind him Dick walks over towards the couch and plops down next to Red who beat him there by a foot. Both were freezing and had thrown their jackets on the floor that were drenched from snow that had caught up to them. Red wrapped the two of them in a blanket.

“No homo or anything.” Red joked as he leaned in closer to a soaked Dick.

“Uh-huh. So anyways about what we saw-- uh back there we’re lacking a ton of evidence.” Dick mutters tiredly drained from everything.

“Oh really? I have something you might want to see.” Red smirked as he threw his cowl and mask to the ground for some sort of effect. He pulled out a Gotham evidence bag that had to be stolen from the last time he got arrested. The freckled teen opened the bag to reveal more evidence that had been lucky enough to not get damaged in the weather. Quickly Red dumped the contents in the bag on the table.

“When did you grab the knife?” Robin managed to say as he stared at the bloody knife that laid on the table in a plastic ziploc bag, “That's going to make us the biggest suspects ever.” 

“I know, I know. But I thought we could get some prints or DNA from this. What if the victim isn’t who we think he is?” Red answered yet ended with a somewhat realistic question.

Dick had let out a huff obviously tired from everything, "Let's deal with that tomorrow.”

“Fine by me.” 

Both despite being soaking wet they lean into each other tired. 

\-------------------

It was early morning and the only reason Dick had woken up was because of how cold the apartment was. It didn’t take him long to realize Red had gotten up to most likely to put on dry clothes. The acrobat got up to do the same. He looked out the window for a moment to see snow piled up on the rickety fire escape outside. 

“Well isn’t that great,” Dick groaned as he headed to the bedroom, not happy about the weather they had received. In the bedroom Red was passed out under the mound of blankets they had a lot them second hand a pure reminder that there was little to no chance of them turning on the heat this winter.

Dick went over to the closet in the small bedroom that only had one bed. Quietly the teen pulled out a pair of sweatpants, his only clean long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt from off the floor. The room looked like it belonged to a couple of teenagers with how messy it was, the room did belong to two teenagers after all.

Dick at this point could get dressed while being in the same room as Red mostly because of how careless Red was. There were other things such as Dick not wanting to step on the cold tile of the bathroom floor. He also tends to sleep in the same bed as his ex-archenemy. All is good for Dick at the moment. 

After the ex-hero got dressed he crawled into bed with Red who immediately hugged him. “Your fucking freezing,” Red mentioned tiredly as he attempted to pile extra non-existent blankets on top of them.

“I know.”

The bed wasn't exactly comfortable and some of the blankets were scratchy, but it was all they had. Dick was still getting used to it, not having his bed, his room and essentially everything he took for granted. Also the fact that he even thought Bruce cared about him.

“My dad must be having the time of his life if he has yet to call the cops like I haven’t showed up to school in weeks.” Dick said as an out loud thought.

“Some people don’t care and would rather go to jail. Anyways if you're going to keep talking do it behind closed doors. I'm trying to sleep.”

“We don’t have a bedroom door in-- fine I’ll stop talking.” 

\-------------

It was mid afternoon and the apartment was frigid. Some of the evidence from last was bound to get ruined with the dropping temperatures. But at the moment Dick with mildly shaky hands was identifying the knife that had been lodged in Daniel O'Reilly's back.

The knife had a silver hilt that had a tiny paper slip sticking out from an engraved piece that had the face of what seemed to resemble a scarecrow. Dick gulped as he stared at the knife wearily held in a paper towel. There had to be a reason why the scarecrow or whom it seemed to be had been after Daniel O'Reilly. The man wasn’t well known and he never saw him at one of Bruce's events.

Maybe the slip had something on it. A small tug on the paper opened the knife showing that it was a hidden compartment. A tiny vile that could barely fit in the knife seemed to hold a red substance possibly blood. Dick pulled the paper completely out and groaned as he saw what was written on it. 

The murder was to grab Batmans attettion or so the note stated.The note read, “Call me Bats--” followed by a phone number. That seemed more like- Dick wasn’t sure at this point because all the bad guys that like to call Batman, Bats were all locked up in Arkham except Edward Nigma. Otherwise known as Riddler.

“This fuckin’ great.” Dick muttered as he threw the knife onto the table, almost breaking the vile that was in it. 

“What's the matter Birdie?” Red cooed in a sarcastic tone.

“The evidence you snagged was for Batman. Also I’m pretty sure Scarecrow and Riddler are working together, but I don’t think we're supposed to know that.” 

“So what you're saying is if we don’t give Batman the evidence we could screw him and the whole city over.” Red attempted to put together as he glared at the knife and its parts strewn across the battered coffee table.

“Yeah that sounds about right.”


End file.
